Autonomous Bassline Generator

We’ve been watching this project ever since [Dann] emailed us about the first prototype back in September. This bassline generator has a lot of functions we like, such as an adjustable melody seed, light-sensitive controls, and device interactivity. Line up a row of them and they’ll sync up the beat, building layers of sound on top of each other (see the first video after the break).

The system is built around an ATtiny84, putting its pulse width modulation channels to work for sound generation. [Dann] has some kits available but he’s also posted everything – the schematics, PCB layout, and code – if you want to throw one together on a breadboard.

These are great, I’ll definitely be buying a kit or two. I do wish MIDI sync was built in, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to add.

@Bassists: We’ve had synthesized bass sounds for nearly four decades, in which time the emulation of electric and acoustic bass (and other instruments*) has only improved. I’m not sure why glitch style bass synthesis makes you think you will soon be obsolete…